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[bryanhall54]

My wife and I are going to Italy for about 16 days in late June , early July. Our plans so far is 4 nights Rome, 3 nights Florence, 3 nights Venice.We would like to spend some time at the beach , but dont know where. Ive looked at the Sorennto and Liguria areas. Any ideas would be helpful.Also interested in spending some time in the country side. Thanks in advance

[wakingdream]

Hi there,

Your trip sounds wonderful

Where were you thinking for beaches? Is Venice your last stop before beach time? So maybe you prefer beaches closer to Venice? Or, are you just trying to find a beach near Rome, Venice or Florence to visit while you're there?

Sperlonga near Rome sounds lovely.

Venice beaches don't sound that appealing.

Portofino is about 2.5hrs from Florence.

Portofino-WkikTravel

Surely someone else has some recommendations

[thellie]

can't give you any beach recommendations, but fairly near venice is bassano del grappa. i had a fantastic 5 days there a couple of years ago, and it's close to the dolomites (i think it's that range), so you can drive up into the hills.

spilling over with centuries of history, wonderful architecture, beautiful countryside and warm people.

[mmbcross]

My wife and I are going to Italy for about 16 days in late June , early July. Our plans so far is 4 nights Rome, 3 nights Florence, 3 nights Venice.We would like to spend some time at the beach , but dont know where. Ive looked at the Sorennto and Liguria areas. Any ideas would be helpful.Also interested in spending some time in the country side. Thanks in advance

First question is, are you renting a car or using public transportation? We did a 10-day itinerary with Rome, Florence and Venice, that also included Pompeii (one of the highlights), Sorrento, Capri and the Amalfi Drive (which must be one of the most spectacular motor routes anywhere). For countryside, the nicest is around Florence, the provinces of Tuscany and Umbria. Don’t miss Siena. You have great beaches at Venice on the Lido Island, accessible by vaporetto from Venice proper. Click on the TravelPod Italy travel blogs. http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-country/Italy/tpod.html.
I found the best guide for me was Rick Steves. It doesn’t bury you in superfluous information and maps out a perfect 16-day itinerary (I dropped the Milan to Venice portion). http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destination.../italy_menu.htm
Cheers
Martin

[wanttoseeitall]

Def go to Sorrento and Amalfi coast, Capri- you can't go to Italy and not see that!!!
Sharon

[riesario]

June 9 – June 23, 2009
Italy vacation – Beach Focus

Rome to Sicily to Sorrento


Day 1: Flight to Rome

Day 2 – Day 4: Rome

Driver picked us up at airport for E$55. We recommend this.

Stayed at Nicholas Inn. Only 4 rooms and the owners are very helpful and speak English. E$150/nt. This was a great location and comfortable.

Spent time site seeing and eating at cafes. Food and wine is very cheap. Most lunches and dinners cost us E$25 – E$30.



Day 5: Train to Naples for overnight ferry to Palermo, Sicily

Took train from Rome to Naples. Learning how to buy tickets is tricky at first. In addition, paid for a first class ticket and got on a train with no first class that stopped in every city. This train to Naples took about 2 ½ hrs; however, we got to see a lot. E$40. Cabbed to ferry terminal. E$10.

Waited for ferry for about 4 hours at a café at terminal. Overnight ferry was 10 hours. We reserved an outside double cabin which had 2 beds and private bath, window to look outside. Through SNAV about E$150. Beautiful sunset and sunrise. You go past Mount Vesuvius, which makes for great pictures. We recommend this trip.

Naples is a dirty town and would not recommend staying or visiting there.



Day 6 – Day 9: Cefalu, Sicily Beach

Ferry landed in Palermo, Sicily and we walked through town to find train station and catch train to Cefalu. Cool streets.

Stayed at Villa Gaia. 8 rooms total. About E$130/night. Nicest part of our trip. Had the oceanfront suite which had a huge, modern bathroom, huge living room and patio, large bedroom. All windows fully opened up and faced the beach directly across the street. Great location within a 10 minute walk to town and shopping. Great and inexpensive food.

Great beach – clear, warm calm water and soft sand. We rented a paddleboat with a slide for E$10/hour. Although we didn’t get around to it, we wanted to rent a scooter for ½ day at E$25. Meals and drinks were inexpensive and cost about E$30.



Day 10 – Day 13: Sorrento Italy

Caught 10 hour day train from Cefalu to Naples. We reserved a first class cabin for about E$150. Shared it with 4 other nice people. This train is not air conditioned well, does not provide food opportunity and is not in nice shape. However, it was cool b/c it needed to be loaded onto a ferry for part of the trip and we got to see scenery.

Once in Naples, need to transfer to local train for a 1 hour trip to Sorrento.

Stayed at Garden Villa. 20 rooms. E$300/nt. This hotel was elegantly furnished and had a beautiful view from front of hotel. It’s about 20 minute walk to Sorrento main plaza. Has a nice pool area. The hotel grew on us throughout our stay, but we would not stay there or visit Sorrento again.

Sorrento was the most expensive part of our trip. Bus system is hard to learn. Food good and about E$20 more expensive. We stayed at pool most of our stay and never made it to Pompei. First time we noticed mosquitoes or other bugs.

Took a ferry to Capri Island E$55 and we had no plans what we wanted to do. Had a lunch there E$40. Rented a motorboat for 2 hours and cruised around island E$80. This was fantastic. You could rent the motorboat all day for about E$150. If we had known this, we would have planned on that and packed a picnic lunch, wine and towels. We highly recommend this.



Day 14: Spent night at Airport Hilton to fly home

Train to Naples, then train to Rome. Somehow, we ended up in a very nice, air conditioned, quiet Express train. Took about 2 hours through countryside. E$80 second class.

At Rome Terminal, need to transfer to Leornardo Express Train to airport. E$30.

This hotel is comfortable, very easy to get to and is a very easy walk to terminal. E$275/nt.

Very expensive - soda or water $5, mixed drinks such as rum and coke $9, glass of wine $10, margaritas $16. We walked to the airport for a dinner of sandwiches and beer instead of eating or drinking at hotel.



Tips:

If possible, fly first class. If you do fly first class, don’t over-drink on the way to Italy, over-drink on the way home. Recovering from a hangover awake and jetlag at the same time is difficult.

All hotels included a very nice breakfast.

Tips are not expected at restaurants or bars. We still tipped between E$1 – E$5/meal.

Hotel mini fridges are not very cool. Finding cold water or wine or ice is difficult.

Before you get on a train, you must punch your ticket at an orange machine.

This time of year was in mid 80’s and not very crowded. I would not visit any later this.

Felt very safe. We didn’t see any crime or pick-pocketing. We had 2 small potential occurrences at Rome Train station.

We were able to survive on 1 backpack each. In Sorrento, we bought a cheap small suitcase to check souvenigiors.

We tried to learn Italian through software classes, but found that having a phrase book is best and to know key words instead of phrases such as: Hi, Bye, Ticket, Exit, Entrance, Open, Closed, Sorry, Please, Thank you, You’re welcome, Here you go, Where, How Much, Check, Bathroom and numbers

[cogob]

If you like a busy beach then Jeso is the place on the Adriatic but along the coast eastwards is Caorle (think I've spelt it right) a small fishing/market town but seems to have plently there..

[mariom]

Sperlonga is a very interesting city, i think is one of the best sea and beach near Rome. Also Circeo (San Felice and Sabaudia) is a good sea place to visit.
I suggest Sorrento and Amalfi also!

[malpensa]

Alpine resorts are much more than plain winter sports villages. During the summer Italian Alps offers its visitors the possibility to spend their holidays in an environment with direct contact with nature. We offer transfere from Milan Malpensa airport to resorts: Livigno, Bormio, Cortina, St.Moritz. We also offer Rent a car services in Malpensa. http://www.malpensatransfers.com

[michael360]

My wife and I are going to Italy for about 16 days in late June , early July. Our plans so far is 4 nights Rome, 3 nights Florence, 3 nights Venice.We would like to spend some time at the beach , but dont know where. Ive looked at the Sorennto and Liguria areas. Any ideas would be helpful.Also interested in spending some time in the country side. Thanks in advance

Definetly the most interesting places to go if you only have a limited time to spend. Rome is awesome, Florence great, but VENICE is outstanding - that is, if you love water :-) My favorite city had been Copenhagen for a long time but since I visited Venice, I want to go back to this great city. Its so different. Certainly, most people live on the mainland, not in Venice proper. Instead you will find tourists all over, wandering from one major hotspot to the other. These main tracks can serve as an orientation. You'll always be able to "find" e.g. the Marcus Square by simply following the stream of people. But if you leave the main tourist tracks, you enter a calm and charming world immediately. It's a labyrinth indeed, but you cannot get lost. After a while you'll meet a canal and so your erraneous wandering is limited. You certainly find other tourists, pointing in all different directions to show you your way, but one of these hints will at least point you to one of the major tourist tracks again... Please keep in mind one thing: Venice is famous of its hundreds of bridges. BUT these bridges are not like bridges in other cities. They have one stair up, one stair down! So, better count the stairs instead of the bridges, you might have to carry your stuff up and down all these bridges :-))

If you want to have a look before you go there, here are some interactive 360° images, I created under my visit:

Venice Panoramic Tour (click on the thumbnails, left-click and drag with mouse)

By the way: You'll find some panoramics here from Rome and Florence as well, but they are a bit older (go to "Italien" -> Rom or ->Florenz on the navigation to the left).

Enjoy,
Michael

[henrycalhoun51]

I have heard that Venice is amazing also ... based on what I hear I would spend most my time there....

[dancera]

I would recommend Cinque Terre, as someone earlier mentioned. It was the most beautiful five days I have spent travelling anywhere! I still have to update my blog, as all that is not up there for you to see. But it is truly marvelous You get so lost in it that you don't want to go back.

And the Italy Rick Steves book is very helpful.

[gfmueden]

Venice calls for some homework to get the most from it. You can see a lot just by gawking, but it means more if you have read some history and a couple of guidebooks. The architecture is seen by walking and from the vaporettos. The Art is in the churches and museums. There is one place i consider a MUST: the Secret Itinerary of the Doge's Palace. It takes you where the governing and justice was done. Very different from the gilded and decorated rooms of the public part of the palace. To see the city at work, go to the fish market in the early morning. A great place for canal watching is the cafe on the abutment of the rialto Bridge. ===gm===

[soar]

My wife and I are going to Italy for about 16 days in late June , early July. Our plans so far is 4 nights Rome, 3 nights Florence, 3 nights Venice.We would like to spend some time at the beach , but dont know where. Ive looked at the Sorennto and Liguria areas. Any ideas would be helpful.Also interested in spending some time in the country side. Thanks in advance

Hi, I knw that beaches near Venice aren't very nice, but in Lido della Nacioni are pretty great.Lido dela Nacioni is a small town on south from Venice, very nice, family place. And also Portofino - cool beaches over there

[gregbraddy]

italy is magic if going on a budget,book in advance,euro is similar enough to the dollar so no worries on comparing prices.i dunno about cash quiclkly,maybe you have some stuff you can live without and flom them?chow

[soniame]

hello,
if you love art, culture and food you should go to Sorrento/Naples area.
Naples, Pompeii, Capri, Iscia, Sorrento and Amalfi coast are wonderful. Food here is great! Some friends of ours had recommended vesuvius vs pompei and we had a fantastic experience.
With one of their excellent guides -entertaining and informative- we discovered Pompeii, one of the most impressive archaeological sites.
As we love food and wanted to discover the secrets of Italian cuisine we had an incredible experience learning all the chef’s secrets while having fun with Alberto, a vvp representative.
This company has specially trained guides, not only able to make history come alive, but also enthusiastic and with a great sense of humour.
They can suggest you hotels, drivers and restaurants!
Don't miss Sorrento and Napels area. You'll love it!
p.s. on a previous trip, we loved to stay in Agriturismo Le Case in Tuscany (Siena area)

[soniame]

hello,
if you love art, culture and food you should go to Sorrento/Naples area.
Naples, Pompeii, Capri, Iscia, Sorrento and Amalfi coast are wonderful. Food here is great! Some friends of ours had recommended vesuvius vs pompei and we had a fantastic experience.
With one of their excellent guides -entertaining and informative- we discovered Pompeii, one of the most impressive archaeological sites.
As we love food and wanted to discover the secrets of Italian cuisine we had an incredible experience learning all the chef’s secrets while having fun with Alberto, a vvp representative.
This company has specially trained guides, not only able to make history come alive, but also enthusiastic and with a great sense of humour.
They can suggest you hotels, drivers and restaurants!
Don't miss Sorrento and Napels area. You'll love it!
p.s. on a previous trip, we loved to stay in Agriturismo Le Case in Tuscany (Siena area)

[jtramp]

I just read about Malta and was impressed. Kensington Tours sent me some information via email. It is an island off the tip of Italy.

[suz123nj]

So many keep recommending traveling south when the itinerary points north. How you travel will determine which beach to choose.